Communication between users of a telephone system

ABSTRACT

Each user of a telecommunications system may speak and record their own name, in their own voice, and a recording of their spoken name may subsequently be accessed by or delivered to other users of the system, thereby facilitating communication between users by enabling users to better know how to pronounce the names of other users. A user may listen to the recorded spoken name of another user before placing a call to another user. When a user joins a conference call, their spoken name may be announced to other users (attendees) already in the call. A user joining a conference call may listen to the recorded spoken names of attendees in the call. A button on users&#39; phones may invoke these features.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates to telecommunications, more particularly totelephone systems, such as private branch exchanges (PBXs), and todatabases associated with users of the system. The invention furtherrelates to a method of improving communication between users of atelephone system and a computer program product for executing such amethod and to a system implementing the method.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A telecommunications network generally includes a collection ofterminals, links and nodes which connect together to enabletelecommunication between users of the terminals. Examples oftelecommunications networks are: computer networks, the Internet, thetelephone network, and others. Messages are generated by a sendingterminal, then pass through the network of links and nodes until theyarrive at the destination terminal. It is the job of the intermediatenodes to handle the messages and route them down the correct link towardtheir final destination. The messages consist of control (or signaling)and media parts which can be sent together or separately. The control(or signaling) part instructs the nodes where and possibly how themessage should be routed through the network. The media is the actualcontent that the user wishes to transmit (e.g. some encoded speech, oran e-mail).

A private branch exchange (PBX) is a telephone exchange that serves aparticular business or office, as opposed to one that a common carrieror telephone company operates for many businesses or for the generalpublic. PBXs make connections among the internal telephones of a privateorganization—usually a business—and also connect them to the publicswitched telephone network (PSTN) via trunk lines.

A conference call is a telephone call in which the calling party wishesto have more than one called party listen to or participate in the call.Conference calls can be designed so that the calling party calls theother participants and adds them to the call; however, participants maybe able to call into the conference call themselves.

In the context of a telephone exchange, such as a PBX, in a typicalscenario, a person making a call (“caller”) may first look up the nameof a person being called (“callee”), such as on a database associatedwith the telephone exchange. However, it may be difficult to ascertainthe correct pronunciation of a colleague's (callee's) name, simply fromreading their name. This can be a common problem in multinationalcompanies, when communicating with colleagues from different nationsusing different languages and different dialects. In some cases, it isnot even possible to realize the gender of a person just from seeingtheir name for the first time. Therefore, it may be awkward when callinga person for the first time, not even knowing how to address them (suchas “Mr.” or “Ms.”), and it may take some time for the caller tounderstand if they are even calling the correct person.

A person answering a phone or joining in a conference call will oftenannounce their name to others (“attendees”) already in the conferencecall, but it may be difficult for someone hearing the name for the firsttime to recognize it.

Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. Acomputer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer,and can be implemented in software or hardware products. Atext-to-speech (TTS) system converts normal language text into speech;other systems render symbolic linguistic representations like phonetictranscriptions into speech. Stephen Hawking is one of the most famouspeople using speech synthesis to communicate.

Text-to-speech (TTS) is commonly used for normal text intelecommunication, translation or navigation tools. In other words, thepronunciation functionality is already being used by online dictionariesin daily life for most of the words. Such tools are usingcomputer-generated simulation of human speech which can cover the normaltexts. For instance, attending a conference call one might hear thetitle of the conference, speech synthesized, by TTS technology. However,TTS is not well adapted to synthesizing people's names, as there is ahuge variety of names and there are different accents even in onelanguage. Even if a name is read by a TTS service, it may not provide acorrect pronunciation. For example; names like Michael, Frank, etc. maybe written the same but pronounced differently in English and German.Generally speaking, TTS is of only very limited utility for contactnames in telecommunications.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the invention to provide techniques for improvingcommunication between users of a telephone system (or exchange), such asbut not limited to a PBX.

This object is achieved with a method, computer program product, atelephone and a telephone system which are described and claimed herein.

According to the invention, the method of improving communicationbetween users of a telephone system comprising a database of users ischaracterized by storing recordings of users speaking their own names inthe database and enabling other users to listen to the recordings ofusers' spoken names. Usually, this method is computer-implemented.

Generally speaking, each user of a telecommunications system may speakand record their own name, in their own voice, in a database(repository) of the system, and the recording of their name maysubsequently be accessed by or delivered to other users of the system.Some examples of use scenarios may include, but are not limited to:

-   -   a user (“caller”) may be able to listen to the recorded name of        a colleague (“callee”) before initiating a call with the        intended callee, such as immediately prior to (at the beginning        of) placing the call to the colleague, so as to better know how        to pronounce the colleague's name when first greeting the        colleague on the call.    -   the recorded spoken names of users already in a conference call        may be previewed by a user who is entering the conference.    -   when a user enters a conference call, their recorded spoken name        may be announced to the other attendees of (users in) the        conference call.

In all of these scenarios, users of the phone system are able to hearother user's names, pronounced correctly, before speaking with the otheruser(s). As well as giving the caller some advance information about thecallee, the fact that the caller pronounces the callee's name correctly(or nearly correctly) when first speaking with them may make a very good“first impression” on the callee, thereby facilitating and improvingcommunication during the call.

In contrast with simply reading a name in a directory, or hearing asynthesized TTS version thereof, the techniques disclosed herein bring a“human factor” to bear upon the communication.

Additionally, according to the invention generally, telecommunicationsdevices (phones) used by the users of the system may be arranged (setup) to have quick access to the spoken-name recording and playingfeatures disclosed herein, such as a button on the phone which isdedicated (assigned) to a user recording their name into the systemand/or a button on the phone dedicated to a user hearing another user'sname (such as the user they are about to call).

The invention may utilize some functionality of a system typicallyassociated with message announcements in that a user records a“greeting” message (such as “you have reached . . . I am unable . . . ”)in their own voice, which is played for callers when the user is notavailable to answer a call. In this invention, however, the user's nameis only played for other users “on demand”, and may precede the makingof a call or entering into a conference, etc.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a user may be able tolisten to another user's spoken name before initiating a call with theuser. A user may be able to listen to the spoken names of other users ina conference call. The system may announce the spoken name of a userentering a conference call to other users already in the conferencecall. User's phones may be provided with functionality, such as a buttonwhich may be pressed, for users to record at least their spoken names.User's phones may be provided with functionality, such as a button whichmay be pressed, for users to listen to the spoken names of other users.

According to the invention, a telephone comprises at least one of: meansfor allowing a user to record their own spoken name in a database ofusers; and means for enabling a user to listen to the recorded spokennames of other users.

According to the invention, a telephone system comprises a switch havinga controller and access to a database, and a plurality of phones capableof connecting to the switch, and is characterized by means for invokingone of more of the following functional features:

-   -   a user recording their spoken name, in their own voice;    -   a user listening to an intended callee's recorded spoken name,        in their own voice;    -   playing a user's recorded spoken name to other users in a        conference call; and    -   playing the recorded spoken names of attendees in a conference        call to a user joining the call.

The means for invoking these features may comprise at least one buttonon each of the phones.

A computer program product for executing the inventive method asoutlined above may be provided. The computer program product may be asoftware product comprising instructions. The computer program productmay be comprised by a machine readable medium wherein the machinereadable medium may be a floppy disk, a CD (compact disc), a DVD(digital versatile disc), or any other suitable digital or analoguemedium.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention disclosed hereinmay become apparent from the following description(s) thereof.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Reference will be made in detail to embodiments of the disclosure,non-limiting examples of which may be illustrated in the accompanyingdrawing figures (FIGS). The figures are generally in the form ofdiagrams. Some elements in the figures may be exaggerated, others may beomitted, for illustrative clarity. Some figures may be in the form ofdiagrams. Although the invention is generally described in the contextof various exemplary embodiments, it should be understood that it is notintended to limit the invention to these particular embodiments, andindividual features of various embodiments may be combined with oneanother. Any text (legends, notes, reference numerals and the like)appearing on the drawings are incorporated by reference herein.

Different “versions” or iterations of elements may be referenced byreference numerals having the same numbers (###) followed by a differentletter suffix (such as “a”, “b”, “c”, or “A”,

“B”, “C”, or the like), in which case the similar elements may beinclusively referred to by the numeric portion (###) only of thereference numeral.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a telephone system for implementingvarious embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an exemplary telecommunications device(phone) for use with the system shown in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Various embodiments may be described to illustrate teachings of theinvention, and should be construed as illustrative rather than limiting.It should be understood that it is not intended to limit the inventionto these particular embodiments. It should be understood that someindividual features of various embodiments may be combined in differentways than shown, with one another.

The embodiments and aspects thereof may be described and illustrated inconjunction with systems, devices and methods which are meant to beexemplary and illustrative, not limiting in scope. Specificconfigurations and details may be set forth in order to provide anunderstanding of the invention. However, it should be apparent to oneskilled in the art that the invention may be practiced without some ofthe specific details being presented herein. Furthermore, somewell-known steps or components may be described only generally, or evenomitted, for the sake of illustrative clarity.

Reference herein to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or similarformulations, may mean that a particular feature, structure, operation,or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment, isincluded in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, theappearances of such phrases or formulations herein are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, various particularfeatures, structures, operations, or characteristics may be combined inany suitable manner in one or more embodiments.

In the following descriptions, some specific details may be set forth inorder to provide an understanding of the invention disclosed herein. Itshould be apparent to those skilled in the art that this invention maybe practiced without these specific details. Headings (typicallyunderlined) may be provided as an aid to the reader, and should not beconstrued as limiting. Any dimensions and materials or processes setforth herein should be considered to be approximate and exemplary,unless otherwise indicated.

FIG. 1 shows an exemplary telephone system 100 which is suited to, orcan readily be adapted to, implementing various embodiments of theinvention, as may be disclosed herein. The system 100 generallycomprises a “switch” 102, which has a controller 104 and a database 106.As used herein, the term “switch” may refer to any computerizedtelephone system, such as a private branch exchange (PBX) that maytypically be used by a number of users in a given business enterprise,and may be accessible via PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) orVoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), or the like. A number oftelecommunications (typically desktop) devices 110 which may be referredto as “phones” may be connected in the system 100, for use by users ofthe system. In FIG. 1, six such phones 110 a-110 f are shown, and theusers associated therewith (shown as stick figures, next to the phones)may be located in different parts of the world, and speak differentlanguages or dialects.

FIG. 2 shows an exemplary telephone device (or simply “phone”) 110 whichmay be connected in the system 100, typically including a handset 112, adial pad 114 (or keypad, with buttons or keys for numbers 0-9, letters,and additional characters), a display 116 (for text or images) and anumber of other buttons for implementing various features such as“hold”, “redial”, scrolling through items being displayed on the display116, etc. For example, a button 118 on the phone 110 may be dedicated toinitiating a search of the database 106 for the phone number of anintended callee and, after a user enters the first few letters of theintended callee's name (such as on the alphanumeric dial pad 114), theintended callee's number may be displayed to the user on the display116. The user may then initiate a call to the intended callee at thetouch of another button (or first having scrolled through a list ofpartial matches, if necessary).

According to an aspect of the invention, at least one button 120 on thephone 110 may be dedicated to the spoken name recording and playingtechniques disclosed herein. For example, when a user presses the button120, they will be able to record their spoken name, in their own voice,into the database 106. Or, when the user has located (such as displayedon the display 116) the name and/or number of an intended callee,pressing the button 120 will play the intended callee's recorded (by theintended callee, in their own voice) spoken name prior to the userinitiating the call with the intended callee. Or, when a user is joininga conference call, pressing the button 120 will announce the user to theconference call by playing the user's recorded (in their own voice)spoken name (and, optionally, with associated text such as “<user> isentering the conference”). Or, when a user is joining a conference call,pressing the button 120 will play for the user joining the conferencethe names of users already in the conference call, in their own voices(and, optionally, with associated text such as “the following people<user1>, <user2>, <user3> are in the conference”). More than one buttonmay be used to invoke these various functions. The system 100 mayprovide for some or all of these functions, and may provide foradditional functions relating to users hearing other users' spokennames.

A single button 120 may invoke more than one function (such as recordingor playing back, announcing into a conference, hearing who is in theconference), such as by initiating the system 100 to announce variousoptions to the user which may then be selected by the user pressing akey on the keypad 114, for example “press ‘1’ to record your name, press‘2’ to hear the name of the user you are dialing, press ‘3’ to announceyourself in a conference, press ‘4’ to hear the names of attendeesalready in the conference”, and the like.

It is within the scope of the invention that the system 100automatically invokes some of the functions described herein, or otheradditional features. For example, the system 100 may recognize when agiven user (“caller”) is calling an intended callee for the first time(such as based on call records for user), and automatically pause(briefly) initiating the call and play the recorded name of the intendedcallee to the caller before making the call connection. The system 100can automatically announce the entry of a user to other users already ina conference call. The system 100 can automatically play the names ofattendees in a conference call to a user who is joining the conferencecall. If the users record their name directly into the switch 102, thena mechanism used in Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) Music Recorderfeature can be applied to the system 100 which may also be called a“pronunciation helper” (PH). Another option is that each colleague cansave their names into a third party tool such as an internal employeeportal working integrated with outlook records, or they can use directlytheir voice contacts if defined already on their network. In this case,there will be a need of a web service that will integrate these namedatabases to the switch 102.

When a user records their spoken name into the system, they may ofcourse speak additional words into the system. For example, the user mayutter a friendly and informative greeting such as “hello, my name is<user's name>, I am <job description> at <department or division of acompany>”. In a “social network” system, additional informative,introductory text could be recorded by the users.

In the manner described herein, the button(s) 120 invoking thefunctionality, in combination with the controller 104 and the database106, may be considered to constitute at least one of:

-   -   means for allowing a user to record their own spoken name in a        database of users; and    -   means for enabling a user to listen to the recorded spoken names        of other users (including listening to the name of an intended        callee, announcing one's self into a conference call, hearing        the spoken names of attendees in the conference call, etc.).

Some extensions and/or variations of the techniques described above mayinclude, but are not limited to:

-   -   the button 120 can also be used for voice speed dial        functionality. After a user pushes the button 120 (and selects        from a list of options, if necessary), the user may speak the        name of the intended callee (destination party) into the handset        112, and the system 100 may check its database 106, match the        pronunciation of the name, and start the call. If more than one        match is found, the results may be presented to the user on the        display 116, whereupon the user may select the appropriate        destination party.    -   the database (106) may be located remotely from the system, and        accessible via a web service.

While the invention has been described in connection with “conventional”desktop phones having buttons, it is clear that the invention can alsobe applied to smartphones or other devices having e.g. a touch-screenwith only “virtual” buttons. A further alternative is that voicecommands may be used instead of using buttons or touch-screens foractivating the recording and playing back of the respective names.

As an example for private automatic switching systems e.g. theCommunication System HiPath 4000 in Siemens EC), there may be a new keytype—which may be called “spelled name”—in the key layout of the phonewhich may be any phone (IP/TDM) with configurable name keys on it. Whenthe user configures one key to this function, the pronounced name (inthe same way as in the display name of the configured station) may berecorded on the phone. This record will then be written into the switchoperating system with the switch programming language. Additionally,call processing is needed to save the “recorded voice” file on theswitch. As this data is kept on the switch database, it will be possibleto integrate with voicemail applications, unified communications desktopclient and other management tools like OS desktop phone manager, etc.

While the invention has been described with respect to a limited numberof embodiments, these should not be construed as limitations on thescope of the invention, but rather as examples of some of theembodiments. Those skilled in the art may envision other possiblevariations, modifications, and implementations that are also within thescope of the invention, based on the disclosure(s) set forth herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of communication among users of atelephone system having a database of users comprising: actuating afirst button of a telephone of the telephone system to record a firstname being spoken by a first user having that first name; recording thespoken first name into the database for storage; actuating the firstbutton during a conference call to cause the system to play the recordedspoken first name to other conference participants of the conferencecall; and actuating the first button, during the conference call, tocause a recorded second name of a second user to be output via a speakerof the telephone, the telephone receiving the recorded second name fromthe database to output the recorded second name in response to theactuation of the first button, the recorded second name being arecording of the second user saying the second name.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, also comprising actuating the first button to cause therecorded second name of the second user to be output before initiating acall with the second user.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstbutton is actuated to cause the recorded second name of the second userto be output during the conference call to enable the first user tolisten to a spoken name of the second user.
 4. The method of claim 1,wherein the first button is actuated during the conference call to causethe system to play the recorded spoken first name to other conferenceparticipants of the conference call when the first user enters theconference call to announce the spoken first name to the otherconference participants already in the conference call.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising providing functionality on a telephone of atleast one user which enables the user to record at least their spokennames.
 6. The method of claim 5, where the functionality is providedthrough use of the first button.
 7. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising providing functionality on a telephone of at least one userwhich enables the user to listen to the spoken names of other users. 8.The method of claim 7, where the functionality is provided through useof the first button.
 9. A telephone comprising: a microphone and aspeaker, the telephone being connectable to a database containingrecorded spoken names of users, each recorded spoken name having beenspoken by the user having that name; and the telephone also comprising amechanism that is configured so that the telephone is usable to performa method comprising: recording a first name being spoken by a first userhaving that first name in response to actuation of a first button;recording the spoken first name into the database for storage; causingthe system to play the recorded spoken first name to other conferenceparticipants of the conference call in response to actuation of thefirst button during a conference call; and causing a recorded secondname of a second user to be output via a speaker of the telephone duringthe conference call in response to actuation of the first button duringthe conference call, the telephone receiving the recorded second namefrom the database to output the recorded second name in response to theactuation of the first button, the recorded second name being arecording of the second user saying the second name.
 10. The telephoneof claim 9, wherein the mechanism is configured to allow a first user torecord that user's own spoken name for saving that recording in thedatabase containing recorded spoken names of users.
 11. The telephone ofclaim 9, wherein the mechanism is also configured to enable a first userto listen to recorded spoken names of second users stored in thedatabase prior to initiating calls with those users.
 12. A telephonesystem comprising: a switch having a controller, the switch also havingaccess to a database, the database containing voice recordings of namesof users, each name having been spoken by a user having that name; aplurality of telephones connectable to the switch; and wherein at leastone of the telephones has a first button and is configured to perform amethod comprising: recording a first name being spoken by a first userhaving that first name in response to actuation of a first button;recording the spoken first name into the database for storage; causingthe system to play the recorded spoken first name to other conferenceparticipants of the conference call in response to actuation of thefirst button during a conference call; and causing a recorded secondname of a second user to be output via a speaker of the telephone duringthe conference call in response to actuation of the first button duringthe conference call, the telephone receiving the recorded second namefrom the database to output the recorded second name in response to theactuation of the first button, the recorded second name being arecording of the second user saying the second name.
 13. The telephonesystem of claim 12 wherein the first button is also configured so that auser is able to listen to an intended callee's recorded spoken name asrecorded in the database.
 14. The telephone system of claim 12 whereinthe system plays a user's recorded spoken name to other users in aconference call via the database.
 15. The telephone system of claim 14wherein the system is configured such that the first user's recordedspoken name is played when that user joins the conference call.
 16. Thetelephone system of claim 12 wherein the first button is actuatable toenable the first user of that telephone to listen to a recorded spokenname of a second user stored in the database when a display displaysindicia identifying that second user at a time the first button isactuated, the recorded spoken name of the second user being a recordingof the second user saying the second user's name.
 17. The telephonesystem of claim 12 wherein the system is configured such that actuationof the first button prior to a call being made results in outputting ofat least one recorded spoken name in the database that is associatedwith indicia being displayed on a display of the telephone having thefirst button being actuated.
 18. The method of claim 1, comprising:actuating the first button to cause the recorded second name of thesecond user to be output before initiating a call with the second user;and displaying indicia identifying the second user prior to theactuating of the first button to cause the recorded second name of thesecond user to be output via the speaker of the telephone prior toinitiating the call with the second user.
 19. The telephone of claim 11,also comprising a display; and wherein the mechanism is configured sothat actuation of the first button causes the speaker to output arecorded spoken name of a third user identified by indicia that isstored in the database when that indicia is displayed on the display ata time the first button is actuated.